Pokies Online Australia For The Win
Pokies, slots or whatever you call them, are all reel games where players try to hit winning combinations of symbols. It’s all about luck, and once you’ve pressed the spin button, you have to keep your fingers crossed!
Pokies are by far the most popular form of online gambling. One reason is the massive variety of themes and features. Another reason is that there is no skill element to consider. It is possible to win very big on even minimal stakes is another success factor. Here we offer a complete guide to online pokie games.
Good luck with your gambling!
Online Pokies – here’s how it works!
There is no online casino today that does not have a complete focus on offering pokies. You can discover that just by a quick look at the welcome pages of the gambling sites. Most of our Swedish casinos have between 500 – 1000 pokies, but some players have over 2000 of them.
Here is a short guide to playing pokies online. If you already know what’s what, we recommend our guide to excellent pokies companies.
Pokie Lines and Bets
Most pokie machines have reels and lines. There are only a few machines that are set up in other ways. For example, we can mention Play’n GO’s grid-based devices.
Pokies usually have three reels, while video pokies have at least five reels. A few titles have as few as 5 or 10 lines, but more commonly, there are 20. For example, the game developer NetEnt usually has 20 lines in its pokies.
Many times the lines are “fixed.” You are then limited to choosing the coin value and possibly the best level. If the lines are not fixed, you can choose how many you want to activate. The coin value is what you pay to play one (sometimes two) lines, while the bet level indicates how many coins you play per line.
For example, on a pokie with 20 fixed bet lines, you choose a coin value of 50 cents and a bet level of 2. Your bet will then be $20.
However, it is becoming more and more common to use win paths instead of lines. Winning ways pay out winnings if similar symbols are placed on adjacent reels. Most common are pokies with 243 pay ways, but there are examples of titles that have many thousands of ways to win.
The rule of thumb is that the range is from 2 to 1000 dollars for the minimum and maximum bet. However, there are many examples of high roller pokies with maximum bets of up to 5000 dollars per spin.
Pokie Symbols and Prizes
Regardless of whether the machine has bet lines or pay paths, the task is always to match combinations of symbols. The more valuable the symbols are, the more the machine pays out. In some pokies, the best paying icons can pay out several thousand times the bet per line!
In classic pokie machines, it is mainly fruits, gems, BAR symbols, bells, and the like that make up the symbols catalog. In video pokies, the symbols reflect the theme itself. In NetEnt’s Gonzo’s Quest, for example, the symbols are in the form of the gods’ statues, which harmonises perfectly with the theme, which revolves around the harmonizesans’ hidden city of gold. Many times, however, not all symbols are directly related to the theme. It is common for some theme-based symbols to be complemented by playing card symbols such as A, K, Q, etc.
All possible outcomes and all possible wins are programmed into the software that runs the game. This software also has a fixed total payback percentage. In English, this is called return to player (RTP), and this percentage is a measure of how generous a pokie is. The majority of online pokie machines today have a payback percentage of between 95-97%.
However, it is essential to know that the RTP of a game only becomes relevant after millions of playthroughs. So if a pokie machine pays out, say, 96%, it doesn’t mean you’ll lose 4% per spin. The RTP is for a particular pokie, and how the different symbols pay can be seen in the game rules and the paytable for each pokie.
Special Symbols and Features
Symbols in pokie machines often include one or more special symbols. The most common are wild symbols and scatter symbols. Some pokies also have special bonus symbols that activate features.
Almost all titles have wild symbols, which is to substitute for other symbols, resulting in more and possibly bigger wins. With a combination with only wilds, the winnings are usually the maximum.
Among wilds, there are many variations. One example is sticky wilds, which do not leave the screen after one spin but remain for one or more further spins. Another example is expanding wilds. These symbols can extend to cover entire reels. Walking wilds are a third example. This wild is often combined with automatic respins, and this combination can often be very profitable.
Scatter symbols can have several different roles to play. In its most classic form, the scatter symbol is a paying icon that pays no matter where on the reels it lands. Often, the scatter is the highest paying symbol by far. The scatter also has another function, namely to activate free spins or another type of bonus round. Usually, at least three scatters are required for the symbol to activate free spins/bonus rounds.
The free spins feature is often the most sought-after in pokies. Firstly, it provides several spins that you don’t have to pay for. Secondly, it is more the rule than the exception that you get to play with one or a few extra special features that offer significantly higher chances of winning. A considerable percentage of the total payback is to be found in the pokie machines free spins bonuses. For many pokies, the figure is as high as 30%.
Since 2021, a lot of pokie machines are released with a feature called buy bonus. This is a feature that gives automatic access to a bonus round in exchange for paying a coin. This feature is trendy in high-risk games. Typically, the “price” for going straight to the bonus round is between 80-100x the stake.
Different Variants of Pokies
When you look in an online casino’s game lobby, you can usually find at least a couple, three different categories of pokie machines/pokies. Various sites may have different names, but the content of the categories is usually consistent.
In the pokie machines category, you will generally find the simplest form of pokie machines. These are usually games with three reels and a relatively limited number of features. This category rarely includes very many games.
The video pokies category includes what is usually meant by pokies, namely video pokies with five reels and a more significant number of features. This category is all the more extensive, and there are examples of sites with over 2000 video pokies.
Classic Pokies
Pokie machines can either be replicas of classic “real world” bandits or be inspired by the past’s one-armed bandits. What they all have in common is a clear focus on typical pokie symbols (fruits, diamonds, etc.), a straightforward game idea with very few pay lines, and a very small (if not non-existent) number of unique features. Those who want a straightforward, old-fashioned gaming experience can find many gems among the pokie machines.
Video Pokies
Video pokies are the type of pokie machines that are most popular in both land-based casinos and online sites. It’s pretty natural. Video pokies give manufacturers more freedom to explore different themes and build on innovative features.
Video pokies come in all sorts of themes, and the inventiveness of special features is enormous. There is something for everyone, and it is probably only time and your gaming budget that will determine how much entertainment you can enjoy. One exciting niche is pokies based on movies, TV series, or similar. These are usually referred to as “branded” after the English word for a brand.
Pokies with Progressive Jackpots
If we look at the interest in different more niche categories of pokies, one class is a little extra popular. These are pokies with jackpots. It’s not surprising that these games are among the favorites of many. On jackpot pokies, even a nearly microscopic bet can yield huge prizes. As a curiosity, world record holder Jon Heywood played for a mere 2.50 dollars when he won almost 180 million on Mega Moolah in October 2015.
There are different types of jackpot pokies
Some of them have fixed jackpots. Others have ever-growing progressive jackpots. Some have pots that grow only with wagers at individual casinos, while others collect wagers from hundreds of gambling sites. It is the progressive jackpots linked between many online casinos that can yield the most significant wins.
Examples of such pokies include NetEnt’s Mega Fortune, Mega Fortune Dreams, Arabian Nights, and Hall of Gods, as well as Microgaming’s Mega Moolah.
Tips for Playing Pokies
Pokies are purely games of chance where random number processes determine your outcome, this in each spin. Sure, it may sometimes feel like you’re winning all the time or not winning anything, but these periods have nothing to do with luck or bad luck. For this reason, there are no tricks to take to get, for example, greater chances of winning.
Instead, pokies tips are about something completely different, namely tips to make your gambling as fun, safe, and secure as possible. Here are three tips to keep in mind when playing online pokies.
Set a Budget and Stick to It
When playing pokies online, you should always have a budget to stick to. You would be wise to set your budget as accurately as possible and then not exceed it.
If your gambling is not that successful, you may lose your gambling budget and then take a new tack the next week or month. Most importantly – make sure you don’t try to chase losses. It never ends well.
Try Pokies for Free Online
Today you have the opportunity to try out almost all pokies with play money. It is something that can be recommended! With demo games, you can get an idea of which pokies appeal to you the most and get to know the machines’ game ideas and features, all this without any risk.
Play the Pokies you Like
There are thousands of pokies, and chances are there are many that are perfect for you. The first thing you can look at is the theme. Do you like mystery pokies, or is it space that appeals most? Do you have a penchant for wildlife, or are you drawn to classic fruit machines? If you spend some time finding pokies with themes that you can appreciate, you’ll probably have a lot more fun playing online.
Another thing to look at is the features of the games. Some players want a minimum of features, while others prefer to have various features to activate. Which do you prefer?
Curious facts about Pokies
Here are some interesting facts and intriguing curiosities about pokie machines. Maybe you can find something to impress at your next party?
Different Names on Different Continents
In Australia, pokie machines are probably the most common name, and in the older generation, there are probably many people who still use the term one-armed bandits. In other parts of the world, however, they use entirely different names.
In Australia, slots are commonly referred to as pokies, a name that comes from video poker’s casino game. The first video pokie machines were video poker machines, but the games are often based on fruit symbols in the UK. As a result, pokies are often referred to as fruities.
The same Pokie Symbols Today as 100 years Ago
When Charles Fey invented the first pokie machine, Liberty Bell, in 1893, he placed horseshoes, spades, diamonds, hearts, and bells on the reels. Do you recognize these symbols from more modern pokies? Just a decade later, the first fruit symbols were added, including cherries. The reason was that many machines paid out prizes in the form of gums, and the symbols would then show the flavor the winners would get!
The World’s Most Played Pokie
The most played pokie on land-based casinos of all time is IGT’s Wheel of Fortune. It has been entertaining and annoying players in the US since 1996 and continues to be incredibly popular. Incidentally, Wheel of Fortune is now also available as an online pokie. The most played online pokie machine is Starburst from NetEnt.
In Short
A detailed description of how pokies work would take tens of thousands of words. The same goes for answers to the question “how are pokies programmed”?
Here’s a short version of what happens from the moment you click to start a spin.
-The software approves the game round
-Your account balance is checked – if there is a balance, the bet is reserved in the account.
-The random number generator, which constantly (thousands of times per second) randomizes new outcomes, delivers the latest outcome.
-On-screen graphics show the outcome visually (even if it’s already fixed)
-Settlement of the bet is made, and any winnings are authenticated to your gaming account.
